


trick or treat

by norio



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Halloween, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 04:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8431168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/norio/pseuds/norio
Summary: Bokuto has never been scared for a second in his life.





	

**Author's Note:**

> concept blatantly taken from [tumblr user orangiah](http://orangiah.tumblr.com/). thank you!!

“I’m not scared,” Bokuto said. 

“I see,” Akaashi said. Bokuto scowled because Akaashi sounded almost _disbelieving_ , like Bokuto wasn’t heroically brave and not frightened at all by the monster on the screen. Bokuto might have been sitting on the couch with Akaashi in his lap, but he wasn’t hiding from the movie. In fact, he was being a Very Good Boyfriend and reassuring Akaashi of his presence by hugging him from behind. 

He just hugged him even harder every time the monster popped up on the screen. 

It had been a nice Halloween. They had gone to a small party and Bokuto dressed up very fancily as a volleyball player on the big court and Akaashi dressed like someone who was making an effort, and then Bokuto had the genius idea of watching a scary movie to finish off the night. Akaashi, after all, had somehow accumulated a collection of strange movies and unlike Bokuto’s collection, only half of those were porn.

Akaashi had scrolled over to the horror section and Bokuto kept pointing to those that were tagged ‘psychological horror’ because that sounded great! But Akaashi gently pushed his hand away and suggested, softly, that maybe it wasn’t the best idea, he had watched those before, they were boring, and they might give Bokuto nightmares. So they settled for the shiny new movie that had recently been released, a sequel to a prequel to a sequel.

The movie had been almost funny at first. Bokuto laughed through most of the ‘scary’ parts. But the movie just kept going and going and he didn’t know when he crawled behind Akaashi or when he started to grip him a little bit tighter whenever the monster skittered across the screen. Akaashi, for his part, only munched on his half of the popcorn. 

“I’m not scared, I’m not scared, I’m not scared,” Bokuto mumbled into Akaashi’s warm shoulder. The main character was making her way through the basement. The sickly glean of the monster glistened from the half-open closet door. While the main character waved her flashlight around, the soundtrack played the skittering noises from the centipede-like legs. The camera followed the flashlight’s beam across the room. The main character hesitantly reached for the closed closet’s door handle. The music was mounting in eerie high pitches, but fortunately, he wasn’t scared at all. He just found Akaashi’s back very interesting, especially the part between his shoulder blades, and he was in a very romantic mood, which was why he was squeezing Akaashi’s ribs so hard. He could only hear the screams, but he was too busy being brave to look up. 

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Akaashi said, half-raised from his seat on the couch. “You don’t have to stop the movie.”

“Wait! Wait, I’ll go with you.” 

“Why?” Akaashi glanced at him. The pale light turned a sickly red from the television screen. 

“I—I like hearing you pee.” 

“If you’re scared, you can pause it.” Akaashi reached for the remote, but Bokuto shook his head. 

“Ha! Me? Scared? No way, Akaashi! I was just worried about you! Being scared! Because I’ve never been scared in my life!” Bokuto hugged the pillow to his chest. 

“All right,” Akaashi said, shrugging. He trudged out of their small living room. Bokuto glared at the pause button on the remote, but he didn’t press it, even when the room seemed a lot colder without Akaashi and the closet door in the movie was still open and the pillow wasn’t warm and didn’t smell as good as Akaashi. 

And then, the television shut off. 

It had been the only light in the room. Bokuto was left in the darkness for a second before his eyes adjusted. The faint moonlight only illuminated a few stray magazines abandoned on their hardwood floor. In the void of the movie soundtrack, he could only hear his own breathing, which came out in loud and shallow stutters. He fumbled for the remote, but pressing the familiar power button did nothing. 

“Hey, Akaashi,” he called out. 

Nothing. 

“Akaashi,” he said again, but still nothing. His limbs felt like stone, but he was very brave. Reluctantly, he abandoned the pillow and stood up from the couch. He could only hear the shuffling sounds of his feet against the cold floor. He hesitated to go too near to the moonlight in the strange sensation that if he did, the things in the dark would see him, but he still wouldn’t be able to see them. 

And he did see them, in some ways. They weren’t ghosts or monsters, but shapes that lurked from the corner of his eyes. They had a short foyer in their apartment, but he thought he could see something behind the sharp corner. Akaashi had bought a coat rack, which stored a single coat. But in the dark, it resembled more like a woman standing in the room. Her limbs were unnaturally long, and the collar of the coat shaped her face. Her jaw seemed unhinged, open mouth stretched to half her face. She stayed in a frozen scream. Her drooping eye was dark and colorless, as big as his fist. She stood, unmoving, in the corner of the room. 

“Akaashi, are you okay?” he tried, turning away from the coat rack. He took a few steps in the dark. It seemed cold. He couldn’t hear the buzz of the bathroom fan, either. Slowly, he neared the moonlight patch, and he thought he could feel something staring at him from behind him. He didn’t turn around. 

There was a small drawer they had placed near the hallway. Akaashi had a small backpack that dangled from the side, but in the dim light, it looked like a head. The four legs of the drawers were like limbs, like a man bent entirely back, his wrists and ankles tapering down and narrow. The backpack head was entirely smooth, like the man had no face. But when Bokuto tentatively stepped closer to the moonlight, he thought he could see the thin neck move, like the faceless man was swinging to look at him. But that was silly. It was entirely silly, like the prickling at the back of his neck. His hands were sweaty. He rested them on his stomach and tried not to look at the faceless man. 

He was right. When he stepped into the moonlight, he felt like more eyes were watching him. Which was silly. He was alone in the room, and maybe Akaashi was out there, alone, and he had to get to him. He swallowed, eyes flickering over to the window. 

Outside the apartment complex, a crowd of people stood in the courtyard. They lined up in a row stretching across the gravel. They stared up at his window. They did not move. 

“Akaashi,” he called again, hurrying out from the light. He had goosebumps on his arms, but he wasn’t scared. He wasn’t scared at all, not even when, to his hurried steps, the reflection of the faceless man made it seem like his neck was twisting around and around to follow his every move. 

When he turned at the hallway, he couldn’t see the coat rack anymore at the foyer. He usually could. With another step, he saw part of the woman again. She faced to the right. Her eye was staring at him. 

He had thought, when he first looked, that she had been facing to the left. 

The hallway had never bothered him before, but he had never realized that it was so narrow. Some of the doors had been parted. He wondered what, if anything, was behind the doors. 

“Akaashi,” he said, though his voice sounded weaker. “Hey, are you okay?” 

He thought he heard something behind him.

Though he knew that Akaashi couldn’t have possibly been behind him, he peeked over his shoulder. But only the knobbly end of the drawer peeked out from the corner. He didn’t remember anything in the hallway clearing, but he supposed it was just a matter of angles. Nothing scary, he thought. It was their apartment. Nothing scary. It wasn’t like if he took his eyes off the drawer for a second, even to blink his dry eyes, the faceless man would crawl after him, head dangling and arms and legs moving in a blur, crawling in a tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick along the hardwood floor and Bokuto’s hands weren’t shaking from fear, just excitement, pure excitement, and he knotted his excited hands into his sweatshirt and turned away forcibly to continue down the hallway. 

He thought he heard a single tick behind him.

His imagination, he thought. He couldn’t see as well in the hallway. He didn’t dare put out his hands. Something might have been out there, waiting for him to do so. The bathroom was just at the end of the hall and to the left. 

He passed by an open door to Akaashi’s study room. He thought he could see the crowd again, standing in the yard. Their mouths were wide open. He hurried down the hall. 

More and more, he got the feeling something was behind him. He didn’t hear anything except his own heavy breathing, but he felt like he was being watched. He didn’t turn around. He wouldn’t turn around. The eyes bore into his back. He thought he could feel the presence growing closer, and it couldn’t be that woman with that wide mouth, her head tilted at an unnatural angle, all the way back. He didn’t feel her getting closer, and closer still when he hurried in his step. He didn’t feel the slight breath on the back of his neck. He didn’t feel her long fingers clenching around his ankle. He didn’t feel anything. He didn’t feel anything. He didn’t feel anything. She wasn’t behind him. She couldn’t be behind him. She wouldn’t be behind him. He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t

A sudden light shot across the hallway. 

Bokuto grabbed the first thing on a nearby dresser, hoisting it up, and he didn’t yelp, and he wasn’t shaking. 

Akaashi turned the flashlight on himself. He seemed a little bewildered. 

“Why are you holding a volleyball?” Akaashi asked. He turned the flashlight onto Bokuto’s hands, and Bokuto could see the swirls of red and green and white. 

“Oh,” Bokuto said. “I wanted to play volleyball.”

“In the dark?” Akaashi’s forehead creased. 

“It’s—it’s a challenge!” Bokuto inched forward. “I was calling for you, Akaashi! I was worried!” 

“I see,” Akaashi said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. I went to get the flashlight. I believe a breaker must have tripped.” 

“Okay,” Bokuto said. “That’s okay.” 

“I’m sorry,” Akaashi said again. “Were you scared?” 

“Me? Scared? Come on, Akaashi! I’m never scared.” Bokuto grabbed Akaashi’s free hand. “Come on, let’s go see if you’re right about the breaker thing.” 

It was only a short walk down the hallway again, and he grabbed the backpack from the drawer and helped Akaashi into his coat from the coat rack. Akaashi was right, after all, and they joined the small crowd outside the apartment. The lights went back on shortly afterward. Bokuto still held Akaashi’s hand tightly, and Akaashi flicked off the flashlight with his thumb. 

“I’m sorry,” Akaashi said a third time when they returned to their apartment and Bokuto had flipped the room’s switch on. “This must have scared you. I should have stopped the movie sooner, but I was enjoying your company too much.” Akaashi leaned his fingers on the countertop, which was the sign for him being unhappy and guilty. Bokuto didn’t like it. 

“I wasn’t scared, Akaashi. Not a single teensy weensy eensy little bit. I could watch that entire movie again and again! It wasn’t scary.” 

“Was it,” Akaashi said, but he still had the unhappy little line on his forehead. 

“Besides, you were with me. Nothing’s that bad when you’re with me.” Bokuto grinned. “And I have to protect you! So I can’t be scared.” 

“Really,” Akaashi said. 

“Yeah.” Bokuto slung his keys onto the dresser. “And besides, if you’re with me, you’ll protect me too. Won’t you?” 

“Perhaps,” Akaashi said indifferently, lifting his hand from the counter, which was the sign that he felt better. 

After Bokuto climbed into bed and watched Akaashi set the alarm clock on his phone, he had another thought. 

“What about you?” he asked, turning over to hug the pillow. “Did you think the movie was scary, Akaashi?”

“Not really.” Akaashi tapped the screen, distracted. 

“I guess not, huh.” Bokuto propped his chin on the fluffy pillow. “What does scare you, anyway?”

“The fact that you think I’d believe you were trying to play nighttime volleyball.” Akaashi stopped tapping on his phone for a second, frowning. “And the fact that I think you honestly would try.” 

“It’s a good idea,” Bokuto defended. 

Akaashi placed the phone on the dresser and rose from his seat. He hesitated briefly by the closet, staring at the handle for a second too long. 

“Something wrong, Akaashi?” 

“No,” Akaashi said quickly. “Nothing.” He yanked the closet door open and examined inside. He pulled out a sweater, took another long look, and then shut the door firmly. The bed creaked when Akaashi climbed onto the bed, pulling the covers up to his shoulder. After another second, he pulled Bokuto’s arm underneath his head to be a pillow. 

"It's too bad," Bokuto said. "If you were scared, I'd tell you I'd always protect you."

"If you were scared, I'd likely say the same."

"But too bad. Nobody's scared. Not a single person."

"Yes. That's true."

It was dark in the room, and there were strange shapes and figures lurking in the corners. But he wasn’t thinking about hands underneath the bed or figures staring down from above him. With Akaashi’s arm slung around his chest, curled up closely beneath the covers, Bokuto could easily close his eyes and relax to the sound of Akaashi’s steady breathing.

**Author's Note:**

> “Hey, Akaashi. You awake?”
> 
> “I am now.”
> 
> “I was thinking. You know, really thinking. About really serious stuff. So next year, let’s do a couples costume!” 
> 
> “Oh.”
> 
> “Is that a good oh? It’s gotta be a good oh, right? It’s a ‘you’re a genius’ oh, right?”
> 
> “Oh, as in, oh, I take back what I said earlier. This is what truly scares me. I am scared.” 
> 
> “Hah hah hah. Okay, listen, it’s gonna be great. We’re just gonna need a rug, a bunch of mittens, maybe some paint, and some neon lights…”


End file.
